1b. Approach (from AD-416)
ARS and the Cooperator will work together to develop and to evaluate new air sample collection methods for the characterization of gas and particulate phase contaminants including pesticides and other semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), ammonia, VOCs, and particle pollution in ambient air. ARS and the Cooperator will further work together to develop an interactive, peer-reviewed on-line database of air quality measurements made at different types of agricultural operations for use by customer groups. ARS will use the new sample collection methodologies to carry out air quality measurements in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to meet the milestones established in their project plan. The Cooperator will use the database to disseminate results from multi-year datasets collected at cotton ginning operations around the US. The Cooperator will design and construct air sampling towers to measure agricultural contaminants, including TSP, PM10, PM2.5, VOCs, and SVOCs. ARS will modify sampler control software and code to meet experimental designs.

3. Progress Report
The goal of this cooperative project with Oklahoma State University is to develop integrated methodologies to measure gas and particle-phase contaminants (pesticides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia) and particle pollution (total suspended particles, PM10 and PM2.5) as a means to examine the effects of agricultural and urban pollutants on air quality. An additional goal is to develop databases of agricultural air quality measurements. This work directly supports subobjectives 1 and 2 of the parent project. New air sampling devices to allow for combined particulate and VOC collection have now been completed and are being tested in Beltsville. This collaboration has led to the development and submission of an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grant proposal entitled, “Optimizing vegetative buffer system effectiveness to reduce off-site transport of ammonia, VOCs, and PM from animal feeding operations.” Monitoring of project activities has been carried out through frequent email communications, conference calls, one site visit to OSU to work on joint projects, and the development of a grant proposal.